According to the FIFA rankings, Uruguay are currently the seventh best international team in the world. Not on the strength of their last display.
One-paced, unimaginative in attack, and showing all the security of a Target credit card against set pieces, Uruguay were torn apart by a Costa Rica team widely expected to be the Group D whipping boys. It’s now abundantly clear why Paul Dummett – the man whose tackle left Luis Suarez needing knee surgery – has received so much hate mail from Montevideo.
The match started promisingly for the Uruguayans when, after a two-footed lunge from Tejeda Valverde, Diego Forlan’s aging right foot whipped a dangerous in-swinging set piece into the Costa Rican box. As Diego Lugano rose to meet the ball, he was tackled by Junior Diaz with a technique more befitting a linebacker than a Centre Half, and the referee duly pointed to the spot. Edison Cavani converted the ensuing penalty with conviction and Uruguay were onemup after 23 minutes.
Cavani celebrates after his PK, but before the tide of the game changed dramatically (Photo: @FirstpostSports | Twitter)
That was as good as it got in an otherwise turgid performance that produced precious little from open play. Time after time Lugano – looking every inch a man just released by West Bromwich Albion – sought out Cavani with aimless long balls that were dealt with easily by a robust five-man Costa Rican defence.
Los Ticos pursued a simple yet effective plan: defend in numbers, harry their opponents with energy and physicality, and release the ball to Joel Campbell at every possible opportunity. The Arsenal striker – on loan at Olympiakos last season – was by a distance the most enthralling talent on the pitch, with all neat touches and direct running. And it was Campbell, unsurprisingly, who drew Costa Rica level after 53 minutes. Left with an acre of space in Uruguay’s penalty box, he neatly chested down Cristian Gamboa’s right-sided cross before smashing the ball past the unnecessarily fluorescent Muslera.
Joel Campbell emerged as the most enthralling talent on the pitch with neat touches and direct running (Photo: @espnfc | Twitter)
Three minutes later, the sucker punch landed. More abject Uruguayan set-piece defending allowed Duarte – who’d been afforded a similarly gilt-edged chance just minutes earlier – to out-muscle Stuani and bravely header the ball into the net. In the time it takes to sing Noble Patria, Tu Hermosa Bandera (the Costa Rican national anthem, if you must ask), the game had turned on its head.
Uruguay were reeling, and while they briefly sought to work their way back into the game, raising the tempo and committing greater numbers to attack, the ensuing space at the back left them vulnerable to Campbell’s guile and pace. On 84 minutes, the Arsenal man delivered a cutting through-ball that was deftly finished by the substitute Urena, and the Costa Rican party went into full swing. Uruguay were down and out.
Campbell celebrates (Photo: @Squawka | Twitter)
Things got worse for Oscar Tabarez’s men in stoppage time when Maxi Perreira earned the first red card of the tournament for idiotically hacking down Campbell. He’ll now miss next Thursday’s game against England, but the real question is whether Suarez will too. Tabarez chose not to field his talisman when 2-1 down with thirty minutes to go. If he isn’t back to fitness soon, it’s difficult to see this Uruguay side progressing beyond the group stage.
